Faceless
by doodlenoodle
Summary: One moment-just one. That was all it took. One breach of his control. One horrible bloody mistake; to ruin both their lives. To create scars that will haunt them forever. NaruXSaku. Three shot.


+ Faceless +

**- She Lives - **

As he walked down the white-washed corridors of Konoha General Hospital, Naruto's shinobi senses were going wild, a constant reminder that he was being observed—being watched. It seemed as if his cover was blown; the truth was out. _That_ was something he definitely had to concede to.

Any and all of his attempts to remain unnoticed had failed—completely and utterly. This left him on the receiving end of many furious glares, and behind each set of eyes was the burning urge to hurl a kunai at him.

He continued to walk down the hall, Hokage cloak billowing behind him as he hurried forward. Just a few more floors and he would be there...

"Naruto," a hard voice came from behind him, freezing him in his tracks. He let out a heavy, emotional sigh. She had finally managed to track him down.

He knew what was coming; he knew he deserved the hate, the ridicule. He could only imagine the disappointment in her eyes. He didn't want to listen to her angry words, but, in the long run, it would be better to get it over and done with.

"Yes?" he asked.

There was a long pause and no response to fill that gap. He waited patiently, telling himself to remain calm, to not spin around and demand that Ino spit it out already. The suspense was killing him. He knew that if she was speaking to him then she must already know. Good news, he prayed.

"She made it," Ino finally whispered, her hands clenched so tightly that she could feel her fingernails cutting through the skin of her palm. She desperately battled the urge to deck the Hokage. The only reason that her fists remained stationary at her sides was her extreme will power. He was _so _lucky they were in a hospital—no, he was lucky that he wasn't even _worth _the energy hitting him would take. She tempered the raging tsunami of resentment, the urge for revenge, because there was no mistaking it: Naruto was to blame for this catastrophe.

"No thanks to you," she spat harshly, making sure the words were loud enough for the other blonde to hear. The blame practically dripped from her voice.

Not even noticing Ino's sarcasm, Naruto let out the breath he had been holding. "Thank kami," he whispered to himself. Relief rushed through him like a flood; she was alive. And yet, he could tell from her tone that a 'but' was coming. His heart clenched yet again as the briefly forgotten guilt came hurrying back to consume him once again.

Naruto lowered his head, his shoulders hunching and eyes clenching shut as he braced himself for impending impact of whatever emotional blow Ino would deal next. But what difference would it really make? It would just be something else to add to the already mountainous burden of guilt that he carried.

Ino scowled, frustrated that Naruto refused to look at her, to face her like a man. Angrier still at the lack of reaction or apparent concern for Sakura, she decided to lay some bait.

"She just got of surgery," she informed him, moving close enough so that he could feel her breath upon his neck. She smirked triumphantly as his muscles twitched in response. Ah, this is what she was looking for. Her voice lowered to a whisper, "The doctor said that she barely scraped through."

Naruto raised a hand to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose—hard. He could feel his nails digging in and leaving indents, but it wasn't enough. Nothing could possibly wake him from this nightmare; no amount of pain could provide the distraction he needed to clear his mind, to sort out just _what_ had happened, and why.

He inhaled shakily and opened his eyes, blearily gazing at the outside world. Naruto swallowed and ran a hand through his hair, absently pulling at the sunshine-coloured strands as he tried to find some semblance of order in his thoughts.

course she was going to need it with all the damage. The wounds and gashes would need stitches; the burns, cosmetic treatment. She would need blood transfusions—many of them, judging by the amount of blood that she had lost.

He was more than aware why Ino was after him, but he just didn't have the energy to give her the satisfaction of seeing him lose himself in grief and guilt. Naruto, so lost in his thoughts, couldn't seem to muster a reply beyond a quietly uttered, "Oh."

"She is going to be kept in a coma for about a week... at the very least." If possible, Ino's voice grew even colder. "But," she continued, "knowing her, she is going to wake up before then."

Naruto absorbed the information quickly. Sakura would be asleep for an entire week. Titling his head in thought, Naruto realized with growing sadness that this one week might be his only remaining chance to spend time in her presence–the _last_ time he would ever have with his Sakura before she realized the grisly truth of what he had done, before he would be wholly banished from her life.

Yes, he would make sure to treasure this week. He just had to make it through this lecture and he could be on his way.

But, what would happen if she woke up early? The thought made his stomach churn. Pursing his lips, Naruto opened his mouth to ask his question, but before he could even utter a sound, Ino cut in with the answer.

"If she does wake up beforehand," Ino paused, licking her lips, gathering her strength to utter the rest of her sentence. "Th-the…" she scowled at how long it was taking for her to get it out. But just the thought, it was too much.

Trying again, Ino had a determined look in her eyes as she finally managed to put her thoughts into words. "If Sakura wakes up early from her coma," she rasped, "then she is going to be in an unbearable amount of pain from all the wounds."

"Oh."

"Yes, _oh_." Ino had already gone back to snarling.

Of course she was going to be _in pain_. What was he thinking? She would be in so much agony. Even when it had first happened… He scrunched up his face as he chased the recollections from his mind. Naruto tried to swallow the lump that was quickly forming in his throat. He coughed a bit to work some air into his lungs before he finally asked, "Is that all?"

Ino could hear how husky his voice was. She wondered why; it wasn't like he'd shown any reaction to her news. Did he even feel any guilt at all? She wanted a response and one way or another she was going to get it!

She paused. What better way to do that then tell the simple truth? Because as far as she knew, the truth in words alone had the greatest power to hurt, wound or even destroy—especially someone like Naruto.

"Do you know that Tsunade-sama was in there?" Her voice cut straight through Naruto, right into the centre of his pain.

"I knew," he confessed, nodding hesitantly.

"Did you know she was in there for four hours? _Four_ hours to save Sakura!"

"I know."

"She was desperately trying to make it even the slightest bit better. But nobody, not even Tsunade-sama, could do anything for her."

"I know." Kami, what was this? His chest _ached_ so much.

Ino sucked in a harsh breath, and it came out in a semi-sob as she finally murmured, "Absolutely nothing is going to work on them…"

He gritted his teeth and kept his eyes trained to the floor. He refused to cry. "I know."

He knew, damn it! How could he _not_ know? How could Ino even _think_ he wasn't aware of what was happening every minute that Sakura had been on the table? Oh, how tempting it would be to lash out right now, to have a taste of something other than sorrow or guilt. So tempting. But he couldn't. He had to be sure, which led to his next question:

"Are they sure there is nothing else they can do?" His voice was hard but it still gave away everything; his denial, his guilt, his false hope.

"Irreversible, they said. Completely permanent." Her anger was palpable. "There's no hope of any sort of therapy working on them," she almost yelled, irked at his insensitivity. Didn't he know that if there was something that could have been done, they'd have tried it? "So yes, I am pretty damn sure that my best friend is going to remain scarred for the rest of her _life_!"

"Can they get a second opinion?" he shot back. He wasn't going to accept these answers. There simply just had to be another way for his Sakura to be whole again; there had to be a way to reverse what he had done.

"It won't matter. Any sort of treatment is going to be considered far too painful for her." But what would be more painful? The life-long injury or the scarring…?

"Chakra–" he attempted, he hoped.

"Did you not hear me the first time? Kami, chakra therapy would probably cause even more damage," Ino shouted. Why was this not getting through to the idiot? This was permanent! Sakura didn't have his ability to heal from any injury—she wasn't infallible. She was human, weak in ways that Naruto, as a container to the Kyuubi, no longer was.

"Are they allowing visitors?"

Ino blinked. Well, this was a turn around. "Yes," she admitted tersely. "But you _must_ know that you aren't allowed near her at the moment," she quickly followed, her eyes narrowed as she tried to deduce what he was up to. She saw the expression on his face. "You _do _know that," she concluded.

Naruto turned to face her for the first time and shook his head. "It doesn't matter," he said.

Trying to glimpse his eyes from below the yellow mop of hair, she bit back an incredulous, "What?"

Ino inhaled deeply and reminded herself that he was the Hokage, and that no, she could not get away with killing him, even if she went to the trouble of hiding the body. "Doesn't matter? Doesn't matter! Think again. You may be Hokage, Naruto, but you have another thing coming if you think that me or anybody that cares about Sakura is going to let you just waltz in there and—" she paused mid rant, with an odd look on her face.

Crossing her arms over her chest and sticking out her left hip, she moved her body into a defensive position as she asked evenly, "Why wouldn't it matter?"

Naruto turned his head to stare at the white board on the wall. On it were Sakura's stats. It illustrated everything that was happening to her now. Taking time to take note of her changed room number, he shrugged, before answering, "Either way, I am going visit her. I need to… It may be the only chance I have to apologize."

"Apologize?" Ino let out a mocking laugh. "_Really_? What difference do you think that is going to make?"

"I—"

"Better yet, _why_? Why the _hell_ did you do it in the _first_ place, you idiot?"

Naruto turned his head back to face. Sighing softly, he scuffed his shoes along the tiled floor as he feebly tried to justify his actions, "I couldn't help it Ino. I didn't know..."

He scrunched up his hands. He was disgusted just listening to himself. Could he be any weaker? "She was there— If I had— Kami..." He broke off. The memory was coming back. The blood—all that blood; it was everywhere: on his hands and on Sakura, on the pretty, white summer dress she had worn.

They were supposed to go on their first date. But things had gone so very, very wrong. At the time, he had tried to reassure himself that it wasn't all that bad—that it was an easy fix. No, there hadn't been that much blood. Her pulse was still strong and her breathing wasn't faint… It was just a mistake—just a horrible, horrible mistake.

Here, at the hospital, was the inevitable wakeup call. Reality had come knocking. Yes, she had been close to death. Unhidden by his denial, he could vividly recall just how bad it had been. He didn't know what else to say. Just made it through, Ino had said. She had nearly died? Yes, he could see that. He shuddered at the thought that she had come so close to slipping away from him, to being gone forever.

Mercifully, Ino's voice drew him from his thoughts. But what she had to say did very little to comfort him.

"It's too late now. Sakura has paid the price of your mistakes. Again."

When would she get the point? He knew all this. It was his fault, and there was _nothing_ he could do to fix it.

"You think I don't _know_ that?" He gestured wildly, before raising a hand to run through his hair. He had to maintain control. He couldn't let his temper get the best of him, not again. Control. It was all about control.

He spun away from her to focus on his breathing. In and out. In and out. Slow, even breaths.

However, as he turned to face her, there was no hiding the traitorous tears beginning to escape his eyes.

Ino hated those tears. What right did he have to cry about anything?

Her ice blue eyes finally locked onto his bloodshot sapphire. "I can tell the guilt is eating you alive, you know," she said with a sarcastic bite. "But all your self-pity and regret isn't going to change a thing!" She stomped up to him, stopping with her face inches from his. She wanted him to hear this, to have it sink through his thick, stupid head. "My best friend," she pointed down the in the general direction of Sakura's room, "is _still_ in that hospital room—fighting for her life. And why? Because of _your_ inability to control your own damn temper."

"Then what punishment would you bestow upon me?" Naruto took a step closer to Ino to meet her challenge. His patience was all gone. She wanted to do this? Fine, he would dance. Let her see what he was going through. Let her see his anger! "Since you seem to have declared yourself judge!" Naruto shouted back at her at top of his lungs with fire in his eyes.

Not the slightest bit intimidated, Ino raised a hand to harshly poke Naruto in the chest as she presented her idea. "Be there," she told him. "The moment she looks into a mirror again. Just stand there and watch her as she comes to realize what you have done."

Naruto was the first one to take a step back and separate himself from the confrontation. He furrowed his eyes brows as he thought over her words. He had no reply. He knew that she was right. What he had done to his beautiful, innocent Sakura… it was unforgivable.

She would be devastated.

He hung his head. He knew that it was the only punishment that came close to what he truly deserved. It was fitting, he mused, that he only person he cared about in this mess; the one he had hurt above all else, was the one to fulfil his sentence.

Not revealing an inkling of his thoughts to Ino, Naruto raised his head and numbly turned away from the other blonde that still had the odd tear trailing down her cheeks.

"Good-bye Ino," he cast over his shoulder. He left her there, fuming, and continued towards his destination:

Sakura's room.

A/N: thank you _systatic_. without this amazing beta...well this story right here- it would basically be just half-brained sentences mixed with chicken scrawl. so thank you again !

part 1 of 3.


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